Founded 2003 by Drew Sills and Doron Zeilberger.
Former co-organizers: Drew Sills (2003-2007), Moa ApaGodu (2005-2006), Lara Pudwell (2006-2008), Andrew Baxter (2008-2011), Brian Nakamura (2011-2013), Edinah Gnang (2011-2013), Matthew Russell (2013-2016), Nathan Fox (2016-2017), Bryan Ek (2017-2018), Mingjia Yang (2018-2020), Yonah Biers-Ariel (2018-2020), Robert Dougherty-Bliss (2020-2024)
Current co-organizers:
Doron Zeilberger (doronzeil {at} gmail [dot] com)
Stoyan Dimitrov (emailtostoyan {at} gmail [dot] com)
Lucy Martinez (lm1154 {at} scarletmail [dot] rutgers [dot] edu)
Archive of Previous Speakers and Talks You can find links to videos of some of these talks as well. Currently, our videos are being posted to our Vimeo page. Previously, we had videos posted on our YouTube page.
Date: Thu., Nov. 21, 2024, 5:00pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Link [password: The 20th Catalan number, alias (40)!/(20!*21!), alias 6564120420 ]
Speaker: Pat Devlin and Paulina Trifonova, Swarthmore College
Title: Games Played Randomly-Chomp and Nim
Abstract: In this talk, we discuss combinatorial games where both players move randomly (each turn, independently selecting a legal move uniformly at random), and we will emphasize the "experimental math" approach that was the backbone of our results. We provide closed-form expressions for the expected number of turns in a game of Chomp with any starting condition. We also derive and prove formulas for the win probabilities for any game of Chomp with at most two rows. Additionally, we completely analyze the game of nim under random play by finding the expected number of turns and win probabilities from any starting position. No familiarity with probability is required, as the talk quickly reduces to studying certain recurrence relations that naturally arise from each game.
Date: Thu., Nov. 28, 2024, 5:00pm (Eastern Time): No talk (thanksgiving)
Date: Thu., Dec. 5, 2024, 5:00pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Link [password: The 20th Catalan number, alias (40)!/(20!*21!), alias 6564120420 ]
Speaker:
Eric Rowland, Hofstra University
Title: Combinatorial structure behind Sinkhorn limits
Abstract: The Sinkhorn limit of a positive square matrix is obtained by scaling the rows so each row sum is 1, then scaling the columns so each column sum is 1,
then scaling the rows again, then the columns again, and so on. It has been used for almost 90 years in applications ranging from predicting telephone traffic to machine learning.
But until recently, nothing was known about the exact values of its entries. In 2020,
Nathanson determined the Sinkhorn limit of a 2 x 2 matrix, and Ekhad and Zeilberger determined the Sinkhorn limit of a symmetric 3 x 3 matrix. We were able to determine
the Sinkhorn limit of a general 3 x 3 matrix, and the result suggests the general form for n x n matrices. In particular, the
coefficients reflect new combinatorial structure on sets of minor specifications. This is joint work with Jason Wu; Here is our
paper .
Date: Thu., Dec. 12, 2024, 5:00pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Link [password: The 20th Catalan number, alias (40)!/(20!*21!), alias 6564120420 ]
Speaker:
Eric Fusy, Laboratoire d'Informatique Gaspard Monge, Marne-la-Vallée
Title: Enumeration of corner polyhedra
Abstract: will present results on the exact and asymptotic enumeration of corner polyhedra, a special class of simple orthogonal polyhedra introduced by Eppstein and Mumford, whose enumeration can be considered as a topological analogue of counting plane partitions.
Joint work with Erkan Narmanli and Gilles Schaeffer
Date: Thu., Dec. 19, 2024, 5:00pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Link [password: The 20th Catalan number, alias (40)!/(20!*21!), alias 6564120420 ]
Speaker: Neil Sloane, The OEIS Foundation and Rutgers University
Title: Eric Angelini's Greatest Sequences
Abstract: Eric Angelini (1951-2024) was for 20 years one of the most inspired, creative, brilliant contributors to the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (the OEIS). With just a few words ("If a digit d is even, the next digit is greater than d") he could create a sequence that would turn out to be well-defined but often still not fully understood even today. This talk will discuss a few of the 1500 sequences he submitted to the OEIS, such as the Sisyphus sequence, the "Sum and Erase", the 1995 sequence, the "Choix de Bruxelles", the Comma sequence, the Jungfrau, the Triply Fractal, and others as time permits.
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